: Re: Iridium Flares to End?
Michael Jablonski (mkj@mindspring.com)
Sat, 14 Aug 1999 17:42:14 -0400
The most likely outcome of a potential Iridium bankruptcy is debt
reorganization. The company has a valuable asset but is not generating
sufficient income to service its debt. It is highly improbable that the
company or its creditors (who probably have liens on the satellites) will
simply abandon the assets. I would be surprised if there is any noticeable
change at all in the operation of the system.
At 04:07 PM 8/7/99 -0400, Ed Troy wrote:
>I would not worry about Iridium being abandoned. After all, it is already
>bought and paid for. If they do go bankrupt, someone else will just buy the
>assets for pennies on the dollar and have a goldmine. The main reason
>Iridium is not working is that it is way too expensive, at more than
>$5/minute. Once they get the price down to a buck a minute, or so, it will
>take off, especially when they can sell the radios for well under $1000.
>Early radios, as I understand, were something like $5K or more. Again, not
>many people are willing to pay the price. But, the radios have come down to
>about $1K now, and will get much cheaper as volume increases, and if
>someone buys the assets for a few cents on the dollar, they will be able to
>operate for reasonable, attractive rates. Thus, Iridium will survive, but
>it will probably be held by other people.
>
>Ed
>